RESTAURANT ocial distancing with Christmas

They’re the same as the Copper Club igloos at Tower One change was to bring in classically trained chef Jamie Forman to Bridge,” said Daisy, our informative host. run the kitchen. amie says his menu is all about flavour and no nonsense

“Ah yes,” we replied, nodding sagely, while stealthily cooking, using the best seasonal British produce. Judging by our meal – Googling beneath the table. Turns out it’s not Copper the Dining Dome Feasting Menu, if you please – we’d add ‘hearty’ and at all, but Coppa. Shows how long it’s been since we possibly robdingnagian’. his was the first fine dining meal we’ve ever were up in London. had that had us sheepishly requesting a doggy bag, a request met without

Besides, we were only half-listening. We were as the merest raising of an eyebrow. omewood is supremely unstu y. skittish as kids on Christmas Eve, excited by the prospect After serving our welcome glasses of champagne, Daisy proceeded to of dining within our own personal globe in the parklike grounds of fire up the fondue. Creamy, slightly sweet, slightly salty, alcoholic what Homewood hotel. Quite aside from the sheer festive glamour of the more could you want from a dish? The menu tells us that the cheese was thing, you couldn’t hope for a more solid guarantee of social distancing Somerset Montgomery, but my notes specify it was Gruyère. I even have if you arrived at a party with a guitar and a the grave accent over the first ’; that’s how classy Kumbaya songbook. Dome-dining was instantly I get after a glass of Taittinger. Either way, it was added to Your Man’s growing list of lockdown HOMEWOOD a robust, indulgent dish, served with herb stu ed positives, which also includes the curtailment of What? Perspex dining ‘igloos’ in the grounds of focaccia and a huge grazing board of cured meats , man-hugging and a welcome end to mingling. a country house hotel, 16m south-west of Bristol chillis and sun-dried tomatoes.

Overlooked by ancient oaks and beeches, the Opening hours tbc after lockdown We wondered whether this gargantuan starter rain coming down at a profound slant, our dome was as snug as an Alpine mountain refuge and How much? Dining Dome Feasting Menu for 4-6 people (includes a glass of Taittinger champagne might also prove to be a finisher, but along came more courses and more wine. More wine is one as festive as Christmas Eve, with candlelight and and half a bottle of wine): lunch £50 pp, dinner of my favourite things, especially on a misty, soggy twinkly decorations. We began to feel as if we were £75 pp. For couples, add a supplementary dome November night. starring in our very own Last Christmas video, and hire charge of £100. À la carte: starters £6-£9, Looking like something Henry VIII might have had the happy realisation that, in fact, we were mains mostly £16-£29, puddings £7-£10 feasted on at Christmas, three Bartlett & Sons lamb quite at liberty to play said tune, or indeed any Service and atmosphere Warm, welcoming shanks cooked in Bath ale came tucked up nice as other we fancied, from our phones; nobody else and knowledgeable. Dare we say, even bubbly? ninepence in their pastry overcoats, with a dish of could hear. We gazed from our splendid isolation Veggie Plentiful choice juicy roasted beets and heritage carrots, and a huge across the lawns at the diners seated in the hotel’s Anything else? Why not stay over? The rooms bowl of preternaturally creamy mash. main restaurant, who gazed back curiously at us. are delightful, the surrounding area bucolic, with Possibly worried that we still might be a bit They looked as if they wished they’d thought of lovely walks peckish, Jamie sent out a dessert of apple and booking a globe, too. Where? Homewood, Abbey Lane, Freshford; rhubarb baked laska, theatrically flamb ed with

We were snug as two bugs on our sheepskin 01225 580439; homewoodbath.co.uk cider brandy. The pud is also known as omelette rugs; unlike poor Daisy, who was obliged to ib rienne; please note the acute accent this time trek back and forth in a dripping cagoule as she (aren’t journalists such fun out with whom to brought out each course. Even this failed to dim her zeal for the domes, hang?) Although a sturdy sweet, it’s tricky enough to get right; it needs to which have been her own personal project; if we were Homewood’s be warmed long enough to caramelise the meringue, but not so long that owners, Ian and Christa Taylor, we’d give Daisy full rein to develop a few the ice-cream inside begins to melt. Needless to say, chef Forman’s was more cracking ideas like this. pudding-perfect.

They probably will; this, after all, is the couple who breathed fresh air Some excellent and inventive ideas have come out of lockdown – take into Bath’s The Abbey Hotel, transformed the Country Hotel into The Bristol’s Breaking Bread, for example, which we frequently did – and Bird and created the exhilarating No. 15 Great Pulteney. When they while igloo-dining dates back to the Uncontagious Times, these discrete acquired Homewood back in 2018, we thought it was highly unlikely little bubbles could hardly be more fit for purpose this Christmas. hey’re that they’d allow this country house hotel to slumber on in its pastoral open until the end of March, but don’t wait until spring to give them a somnolence without introducing some liberal tweaks to proceedings. whirl; it’s in the bleak midwinter that they really bring the magic. n